This was the celebratory photo I took of my motorcycle at Ditchling Beacon earlier this month on my first ride down to Brighton. It was one of the few times recently when the Monkey started without any problems before things went downhill significantly and I had to do a few rounds with breakdown services and motorcycle mechanics. I'm glad that the problem is now fixed.
It's nice to be able to ride my Honda Monkey without worrying that it wasn't going to start. It's just great to be back with the fun Monkey, as opposed to the rather sickly monkey over the last couple of months.
Throughout last summer, through the winter and spring my motorbike had started without fail, and without the need for a trickle charger or jump leads. Then I had this dodgy period where the motorcycle just seemed to become more and more difficult to start. It totally failed to do so a few times, with the battery losing charge at an ever increasing rate. I became more familiar with the breakdown recovery service than I would have liked. The bike even failed to start on one occasion after I had left it parked for 2 hours during my orchestra rehearsal - despite having left it on trickle charge for the whole day before going out on it.
When it comes to that, things become quite stressful and you realise you can't take the bike anywhere. Also, it won't do for someone to just say "you need a new battery" or "it's the tracker that is draining your battery".
Thankfully a good mechanic had the presence of mind to check out the underlying cause and pinpoint the problem to a faulty rectifier. So that has been replaced, as has the battery - with a good quality Yuasa one. So now I am a happy rider.
I can't say how relieved I feel just to be able to start the engine and be greeted to the sound of the rumbling of a healthy engine. I imagine my Monkey is also very happy to have properly working innards too!
So I look forward to doing some more trips to interesting places before winter sets in.
Weather: Sunny, with evening mist, 10 degC Parks: South Downs National; Preston Route on Strava
As those who have done or are doing the Festive 500 will know, the most challenging aspect of the riding is finding the time to get out and ride. For me this has been pretty much the same too, with days flying by and being dominated by bike riding.
Sadly, we ordinary folks don't have the luxury of someone to clean up our bikes after a messy day out, or someone who can do our laundry for us or prepare our meals. And of course there's just the simple deed of getting life done, which becomes difficult to juggle when you are out riding at least 40 miles every day.
I decided I needed to have a bit of breathing space, so today was the day to catch up on other things a little rather than going on a bike ride first thing in the morning.
Entry into the South Downs Park, from the Brighton end of Ditchling Road
As a result I set off for Brighton by car at lunchtime in a hope of riding around the South Downs National Park.
The intention was to park somewhere near central Brighton and then do a loop up to Ditchling Beacon, over to Devil's Dyke and then back.
That didn't quite work out though because parking in Brighton was a real challenge. There are some areas where I have managed to find spaces in the past, but today it was nigh on impossible. In the end I found a space on the edge of the city, just off the Ditchling Road - which I guess was a handy place for the start of my ride.
By the time the ride began it was not long before 3pm, so I only had an hour to do the circuit before night fell. Realising there was no time to waste I just pushed on as best I could. Riding up to Ditchling Beacon from this side of the hill was a novelty for me, as my normal route would be to approach it from the north, when doing a London to Brighton ride. Going up this way the road was an uphill grind, but it was not as steep as I had anticipated, considering how fast the road is when coming down into Brighton. Also, it wasn't a constant climb, but more like an undulating road.
Today had been a glorious sunny day - at least when I was driving down from London. However, as the South Downs drew nearer the atmosphere became cooler and my glasses got steamed up as it became misty and damp.
Once at Ditchling Beacon there were still quite a lot of walkers and mountain bikers riding along the South Downs Way trail. But there was a very low number of road cyclists compared with the numbers you normally see huffing and puffing up the hill from Ditchling village.
From my vantage point, at around 235m above sea level I would normally be able to see the city of Brighton including the Brighton i360 ride and the AMEX Stadium, home of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club. However today, everything was shrouded in mist. Furthermore, I was getting colder and colder as it became less fun to be there.
So I ditched my plan to go to Devil's Dyke and just turned back and retraced Ditchling Road to return to central Brighton. I was glad to have brought with me extra coats and high vis as it was pretty cold on the descent, and there was a bit too much mist for comfort, as I descended the twisty road, which still had its fair share of motorists.
Once back in Brighton I did a little loop around Preston Park - a place where I have raced in the past, and did a mini tour of the town centre, which as usual was just Brighton - with all it's hip shops around the North Lane area.
Riding back up to the car from central Brighton was pretty testing, and that probably explained why the earlier ride from my car to Ditchling Beacon had been more like a false flat - because the steep climbs kick in close to the city centre, so that on the edge of city limits things actually level off.
In the end, my ride was only 23 kms long, though it felt like I had ridden double the distance! It had been a short day in the saddle but I think my body and my mind appreciated a low mileage day for once.
I am just over a month out from a running challenge I have signed myself up for, the Beachy Head Marathon.
Earlier this year I as supposed to run the Paris Marathon. I did all the preparation, and then a couple of days before I as due to go things went wrong. My orthotics that I had sent in to be reposted arrived back to me late, and the podiatrist had messed up the settings so that they were unusable. So I as left without any orthotics and couldn't do the race.
It was very frustrating. I had toyed with doing New York, but bottled out of signing up for fear that because the money would be a lot to lose if something went wrong again. So I plumped for doing something in the UK. Initially I thought of doing a mountain marathon, but in the end I plumped for Beachy Head - which, being in Eastbourne is comparatively local for me.
It consists of running a marathon - 26 miles (or 42 km) but with loads of hills of the South Downs thrown in, meaning 1200m of climbing. That is not something I have done before, and would be a real challenge.
But thankfully, using the fitness from my Paris Marathon training I have been building on that, but just adding loads of hills. Near to me is of course Crystal Palace, but I have also been running around the North Downs. The real hills are done in the South Downs though.
So that's where I went today. Normally I cycle around these chalky hills, but running them really gives a different perspective, and also the time to notice things that you don't necessarily see when you are focused on bike handling and not falling down!
When running along the trails there's a monument near Ditchling Beacon. It's known as the Chattri Memorial, to commemorate Indians who died during the first World War. Many of them were treated in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which served as a hospital, and the site of the Chattri Memorial is where the dead soldiers were cremated. The memorial now has Grade II listed status. It looks great in the middle of Downs, though I have to say it does look a bit random.
Today's run went nearer to Trudleigh Hill and Edburton Hill and Devil's Dyke. That was a pretty long run, and by the time I got back to my car at Portslade and Southwick 15 miles later, my legs were like jelly! I like to think it's all miles in the bank, and hopefully it will make me stronger.
Chattri Indian War memorial in the middle of the South Downs
It's the first day of meteorological autumn. Gee, where did the time go? September 1st also represents the first day of my annual one day one photo snapshot. Basically I publish a photo of the day for every day of the month of September.
Today's photo is of the Chattri Indian War memorial, built in 1920 to commemorate the lives of the Indians who fought for Britain in the first world war.
I was out on a trail run in the South Downs, and mapped out a route to get back to my car, which was parked in Ditchling Beacon. The easiest way back from Stanmer Park was to run along the bridleway parallel to the main road, and then up the Sussex Border path to reach the South Downs Way.
As soon as I made the right hand turn to head north, I saw this structure - which wouldn't have looked out of place in India - in the middle of the South Downs? Really? I thought I was hallucinating. But no I wasn't. This makes quite a change from farmhouses and sheep!
I have a secret ambition to run a trail marathon this autumn, and so have been doing long off-road runs. Sometimes the scenery can get a little monotonous. If my route were peppered with a few more monuments like this that would certainly jazz things up.
